Ichiro by Ryan Inzana YP FIC INZANA

Ichiro is lost between worlds.He has a Japanese mother and an American father who died in a war before he ever really knew him. He feels out of place in New York and when he has to stay with his grandpa in the Japanese countryside, it’s more like another planet than another country. But none of this prepares him for when he catches a raccoon that’s really an ancient Japanese spirit that pulls him into the realm of the gods and in a fight for his life.  Now he has to find his way home when he's not even sure where or what his home is.

This is a graphic novel with pretty big ambitions. It tackles war, national identity, religion, violence, and even the fallibility of gods. It does this all within the backdrop of myths and legends of Japanese folklore. Inzana takes the risky move of explaining only the major figures of the mythology and leaving the rest for readers to research on their own, so you’ll learn a good deal about Japanese folklore but have even more to find out for yourself. I actually think this works out for the best, it lets readers feel as lost and bewildered as Ichiro. This makes his adventure more effecting and exciting than if every page was littered with footnotes explaining what a kappa is. The art is a mix of manga style, Japanese ukiyo-e wood prints, and American art. This fits the story and themes of the book perfectly and is also just gorgeous to look at. Inzana uses color sparingly to highlight important objects and for startling contrasts. This is a unique, original, and touching story with superb art throughout. It is a must read for any and all comics fans looking for a great story and great art, but especially for anyone interested in Japanese culture.

You can check our catalog for Ichiro here.

There is No Dog by Meg Rosoff YP FIC ROSOFF

What if God was a Teenage boy?  Well Bob is and things aren’t going so well.  He has his overworked assistant Mr. B to fix his messes, but it’s beyond a full time job.  Earth would be less chaotic if he had taken more than 6 days to make it, but he got lazy.  Now he’s in love (well lust at least) with a perfect girl named Lucy and that spells almost certain doom.  When Bob gets emotional, nature recoils. Hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, and the like replace sweaty palms and butterflies in the stomach, so Earth and Lucy may not survive Bob’s raging emotions (hormones).

Right off the bat, this book will not be for everyone.  It is gleefully irreverent (purposely unserious) and controversial.  It takes the creation stories of multiple cultures and religions, throws them into a blender, and explains them as the whims of a not particular bright or motivated teenage boy.  So there’s that.  However, if that sounds like your cup of tea, you are in for a deep, witty, and fully unique ride.  The pure zaniness of the premise allow Rosoff to look at literally all aspects of human life, emotion, goodness, pettiness, and love though a universal and personal lens all at the same time.  Between the outrageous humor there is a lot of deep questions and insight. This is an inimitable book and anyone that wants a truly hilarious and challenging read should pick it up.

You can check our catalog for There is No Dog here.

The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan YP FIC RIORDAN

Brother and sister Carter and Sadie Kane have lived apart from each other since their mother’s death; Sadie in England with their grandparents and Carter travelling the globe with their archeologist father. Suddenly their father tells them he has a way to make things right again, but instead he makes things very, very wrong. He performs a magic ritual that accidentally unleashes the most evil of the Egyptian Gods into our world blowing up part of a museum. Oops. Now their father is missing and Carter and Sadie are being hunted by Set (one of the baddest serpent gods you’ll ever meet) and a league of magicians intent on imprisoning and/or killing them. Oh and if that wasn’t enough, they find out that they have magic powers too, which might end up killing them if they don’t learn how to use them. Thus starts the newest adventure from the author of the Mega hit Percy Jackson series.

Okay, if you’re a Percy Jackson fan things might be sounding more than a little familiar to you, but that’s not always a bad thing. Yes this is a book about kids finding they have magic powers and have to fight ancient gods to save the world, but if ain’t broke why fix it? Riordan keeps enough different about this series from the Percy Jackson books that it stands on its own. The Egyptian mythology is very cool in this book and made me want to learn more about Egyptian myths. We get two heroes instead of one main hero and the chapters alternate between their point of view. That does bring me to my one criticism of this book. We’re told that the story has been transcribed from audio tapes, which sometimes feels like a gimmick. It wasn’t always believable to me the way they told the story would be how someone would speak on an audio tape and it seemed unnecessary. Fortunately, the story is good enough that it didn’t become a dealbreaker for me. This book has Riordan’s excellent use of humor and action to keep the story fast and fresh. I liked the heroes a lot, but my favorite character was Muffin, Sadie’s talking cat and protector. If you liked the Percy Jackson books then you absolutely should check this one out. I would also recommend it to Harry Potter fans.

My Soul to Take by Rachel Vincent

Fans of the Twilight series and Melissa Marr’s faerie series Wicked Lovely, Ink Exchange, and Fragile Eternity will devour Rachel Vincent’s My Soul to Take, the first book published by HarlequinTeen, a division of the legendary romance publisher. My Soul is the first of the Soul Screamers series.

High school student Kaylee Cavanagh seems to have a gift, but how special that gift is could be debated. The ability to predict things would be cool if you weren’t predicting when people were going to die. What makes this “gift” even more regrettable is the blood-curdling scream that accompanies it. Kaylee, although she doesn’t consider herself beautiful or extraordinary, just wants to try live normal life, which includes hanging out with her best friend, Emma, and finishing high school. Her young life has already faced the obstacles of her mother’s death and her father leaving her with her aunt, uncle, and snobby cousin and classmate, Sophie. Kaylee’s life veers far left of normal when she begins predicting the deaths of strangers and classmates, who just seem to drop dead for no reason.

Further complicating this issue is Nash Hudson, a gorgeous jock, who takes an interest in her on the same night as the death premonitions begin. Kaylee, a social zero at her school, wonders why Nash, one of the hottest seniors, would want to hang out with her. What could they possibly have in common? (More than you know.) And, why does he have such a calming effect on her, especially when the premonitions take place?

There are many secrets that have been kept from Kaylee, and her ability to predict death will soon force the truth to be revealed.

My Soul to Take will interest Twilight fans, but this story contains no vampires or werewolves. Instead Vincent uses legends in Irish folklore to shape her series. The book is a healthy mix of romance, paranormal, and mystery, and the author keeps the reader in engaged with plenty of twists and turns. The topic of death is in the forefront of the novel; therefore, it may not be appropriate for younger teens. The physical romance is fairly limited because of the age group for which it is intended and the heavy topic of death.

Cupid: A Tale of Love and Desire by Julius Lester and read by Stephen McKinley Henderson

Ever wonder who Psyche is and what she has to do with Cupid? Well, listen to this story and find out while learning a little bit of mythology along the way. Listening to the narrator is like being snuggled in bed listening to a bedtime story told by an old and wise storyteller. YP AD FIC LESTER